Hotel Complex Hearing Delayed In Milford Twp.

June 19, 1984|The Morning Call

A public hearing has been "indefinitely postponed" on an application to rezone the Geissinger tract at Route 663 and Portzer Road in Milford Township. The rezoning would allow construction of a $100 million hotel-industri al complex.

The postponement came yesterday at the request of the developer.

Milford supervisors received a letter yesterday from Robert L. Showalter, engineer for the developer, Pileggi Associates, Warrington. It notified the township that the application for zoning change will be amended.

The letter said the new request will call for a planned commercial zone instead of a central commercial zone on the tract that is presently zoned rural residential.

Pileggi's move comes on the heels of a turbulent Milford Township planning commission hearing on the request on last Monday night.

The latest request will require that the height of the hotel be cut from 65 feet to 35 feet, supervisor chairman Paul Mumbauer said last night.

He added, "We understand 300 hotel rooms would still be built under planned commercial zoning but they would be spread out over a larger portion of the tract."

Showalter said in his letter, " . . . this is a substantive change in the application and will require postponement of the hearing scheduled next week (Tuesday).

"We also anticipate we will be filing an amended impact statement in the near future," Showalter added.

"We are waiting, however, for all the reviews that the various township consultants are preparing - in particular for the review of the township engineer."

Mumbauer estimated that the time lapse will be "a matter of a few months."

David Cowan, a resident of Old Plain Road, expressed concern about water supplies in the area.

Supervisor Jack Blough responded that the developer wants to start a water system by drilling a deep well to the bottom of the basin on which the Geissinger tract sits.

Blough said if this drys up wells in the area, the developer would be required to provide water to those who lost their water supply.

"We'd have to buy it?" asked Cowan.

"If the township goes into the water business, it will sell water," supervisor John Moyer said.

However, Moyer also said, "There are ways of extracting water from that tract without disturbing the wells in the area."

Cowan also asked that a state Department of Transportation traffic study on Old Plain Road be requested by the township to determine if the speed limit could be reduced from the existing 55 miles-per-hour in that residential area.